Friday, 2 February 2018

The Book Shelves: Harry Potter Part 1

Josh and I love collecting nice books, before we lived together we always used to joke that we'd bought another 'shelf book' when we picked up display-worthy books. When we did finally move in together it was a challenge to find somewhere to display these beautiful books until finally we settled on a bookcase at the top of the stairs. So that's where our book collection now lives. The shelves can be split into 5 categories, Disney, Harry Potter, The Beatles, Star Wars and magazines/programmes. I thought it would be fun to delve into our book shelves and share our lovely collection of books with you all so today we'll be looking at our Harry Potter (and Fantastic Beasts) book collection with the focus being on factual book, I'll cover my collection of the actual Harry Potter stories in a separate post.

The original Harry Potter books will always be my first love but I just never tire of the movie versions either and we own some really interesting books about the making of the movies. The Page to Screen book is an absolute beast and is so heavy. There's an in depth chapter for each film that shows you how it was made then part two of the book contains chapters for the art of the films which covers characters, creatures, locations and artifacts. It's the ultimate Harry Potter film book and if you were to have any book in your collection then this is the definitive one!

The Film Wizardry book is more focused on imagery then the Page to Screen book and definitely has some beautiful pictures inside. Again this book looks at each film then focuses in on some of the stad out moments, settings and characters from that particular film. There's a look to look at in the book, with pull outs and fully removable facsimile's.

The Definitive Movie Posters contains 40 removable posters which we've actually never took out, we are after a Harry Potter movie poster to display but I'm actually torn about taking them out of this book and spoiling it.

Magical Places from the Films covers all the locations featured throughout the films. It's split into nine chapters (The Dursley's House, Diagon Alley, Kings Cross Station, Hogwarts Castle, Hogwarts Classrooms and Offices, Hogwarts Grounds, Hogsmeade, Ministry of Magic and Wizarding Homes) then within those chapters there's an in depth look at all the separate locations that come under that heading. There's stills from the movies, concept art, plans and first sketches to show how each location was imagined.

Finally we have two Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them movie books in our colletion, the first one being The Case of Beasts: Explore the Film Wizardry of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This is a beautifully presented book with a magnetic opening. It covers all aspects of the film from characters to locations and like the Harry Potter Film Wizardry book, it's very visual with beautiful images and film still, there's also a few facsimile's in this book too. The final chapter is reserved for Newt's suitcase where you can read about some of the creatures Newt cares for in the film.

The final book is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Art of the Film. I love any art of the film book as I always find them to be so visually stunning and this one definitely does not disappoint! This book is full of the most beautiful production painting, concept art, storyboards and paintings that truly brings each location and creature covered to life, taking you on a journey from the original ideas to the finished product.

I hope you enjoyed this first post in our 'The Book Shelves' series. Be sure to look out for part 2 of our Harry Potter book collection, more explorations into our bookshelves and in depth reviews of some of the beautiful books we own.